The President and cofounder of Paul Frank Industries set a new PR of 3:43:37 at the Orange County Marathon.

You've run four marathons now. How did you get started? I started in 2006. I became friends with a guy named Brian MacKenzie, who is the endurance expert for CrossFit Endurance. At the time, he was an ultrarunner, and he had just completed the Western States 100. When he told me that, I had little bearing for understanding someone who would want to run 100 miles in the wilderness with a headlamp. It just was beyond comprehension, but at the same time, I was strangely fascinated with why someone would want to do that. And what it feels like. I started training with him very lightly. One day I just put my shoes on and wanted to see how far I could run without stopping. I made it to my traffic signal and back, which was two miles, and I thought, Wow, this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. This is really tough, and I'm completely hooked. I've always been one not to back down from business challenges. I was in good shape, but certainly not cardiovascular shape. Just from bonking two miles into my first run, from there I went on a tear.

How did that lead to you becoming a marathoner?From there, Brian took me out on an eight-mile trail run, a technical singletrack in El Moro Canyon. That's like a Disney ride. You duck under branches and dodge things and jump over this and that. I love it. I surfed for 20 years but have abandoned that altogether. There is nothing more I'd rather do at the crack of dawn than run. When I tell most people that, they just look at me like I have three heads. They just don't get it. I still have an appreciation for surfing, but where my heart is right now is with my running shoes.

Why is running so special to you?Running has been the great equalizer for me. It's given me some nice balance and perspective. You might assume I'm burning the candle at both ends by running a merchandise business and training for a marathon, but I would say it's quite the opposite. Running lets me take a break and take a look at the scenery. It allows the problem-solving side of things to come into effect and gives me clarity when I'm out there on the trail for a couple hours at a time. Also, it helps me be a better time manager, too. I have a young family, and I'm trying to split my time between my babies and work and running, so it's really made me more of an efficient time manager.

How do you set race goals?I don't have the VO2 max of a Kenyan, so I taper my expectations. I try to finish in the front of the midpack as a general rule. My wife, Mel, is very supportive. She comes to my races. She gets up with me and gets my prerace meal set, and then she goes back to bed and meets me at the finish line later. It's a team thing and a family thing we do together. The whole experience has brought the family closer.

Tell us about the new marathon PR you set in May. Was there a big difference in your training? My prior best was a 4:04 at San Diego, and then I went 3:43:37 at Orange County in May. It was a huge difference. I guess the way to explain it was that when I ran the 4:04, I wasn't running up to the point where I needed to really break four hours. This time I really just put in the hours, and obviously the proof is in the result.

How did the race go?Everything was going perfectly to plan leading up to mile 18. The guy that was training me said, "Whatever you have left in the tank after mile 18, go ahead and drop the hammer." Our goal was to be around an 8:34 per mile, no faster than that, up to mile 18. I was under, closer to 8:15 to 8:20 average. I was cheating it a bit, but I also kind of wanted to front-load it, just because sometimes the wheels come off at the end of the race. So I kind of built up a little bit of a cushion. So I got to mile 18, and I dropped the hammer and dropped my pacer, who was a Boston qualifier; she was having a bad day. I looked back at her at 18, and she kind of gave me the wave to go, and I gave her the shoulder shrug and dropped the hammer.

I was running negative splits through mile 23, and that's kind of when the race began. I was feeling great, had the high going. And then it took everything I had not to walk at mile 23. I started to do the death march. I was glazed over and probably wasn't blinking much. But when I saw the gates marking the final miles, I picked it back up and went into a sprint. There were some very telling miles from 23 to 26, and for me, that's what it's all about. That's where you find out who you are as a person. That's why I do those things. It's in that pain in the last three miles that really defines who I am and really helps me understand.

You must be pretty excited with that effort. I'm really, really happy. My goal was a 3:45. The fact that I went under my goal was even more of a bonus. This was the first time I actually finished a race and didn't have to drive to go home and see what was lower. I actually let this one sink in a bit and felt a little bit of pride. I know that's a curse for most runners—that they left a little on the table and could have done better.